History

Streatham means "the hamlet on the street". The street in
question, the London to Brighton
Way, was the Roman Road from the capital Londinium to the coast near Portslade. It is likely
that the destination was a Roman port now lost to coastal erosion,
which has been tentatively identified with the 'Novus Portus'
mentioned in Ptolemy's Geographia.[2] The
road is confusingly referred to as Stane Street in some sources, although it
diverges from the main London-Chichester road at Kennington.

After the departure of the Romans, the main road through
Streatham remained an important trackway. From the seventeenth
century it was adopted as the main coach road to Croydon and East Grinstead, and then on to Newhaven and Lewes. In 1780 it then became the route of the turnpike road from London to Brighton, and subsequently
became the basis for the modern A23. This road (and its traffic) have shaped Streatham's
development.

Streatham's first parish church, St Leonard's, dates back to Saxon times, although
only the mediaeval tower remains in the present church. The
mediaeval parish covered an extensive area, including most of
modern Balham and parts of Tooting.

The village remained largely unchanged until the 18th century,
when the village's natural springs, known as Streatham Wells, were
first celebrated for their health giving properties. The reputation
of the spa, and improved turnpike roads,
attracted wealthy City of London merchants and others to
lay out their country residences in Streatham. Few of these large
houses still remain, as the area was rapidly urbanised as London
expanded.

Park Hill

One large house which survives is Park Hill, on the north side
of Streatham
Common, rebuilt in the early 19th century for the Leaf family.
It was latterly the home of Sir Henry Tate,
sugar refiner, benefactor of local libraries across south London,
and founder of the Tate Gallery at Millbank.

Urbanisation

Development accelerated after the opening of Streatham Hill railway
station on the West End of
London and Crystal Palace Railway in 1856. The other two
railway stations followed within fifteen years. Some estates, such
as Telford Park to the west
of Streatham Hill were spaciously planned with facilities such as
tennis clubs. Despite the
local connections to the Dukes of Bedford, there is no link to the
contemporary Bedford Park in west London.
Another generously sized development was Roupell Park, the area
near Christchurch Road promoted by the Roupell family. Other streets adopted more
conventional suburban layouts. Three more parish churches were
built to serve the growing area, including Immanuel and St Andrews
(1854), St Peter (1870) and St Margaret the Queen (1889). There is
now a mixture of buildings from all architectural eras of the past
200 years.

The
inter-war period

Between the First
World War and the Second World War
Streatham developed as location for entertainment, with Streatham
Hill Theatre (now a bingo hall), three cinemas, the Locarno
ballroom (now Caesar's nightclub) and Streatham Ice Rink all adding
to its reputation as "the West End of South London". With the
advent of electric tram services it also grew as a shopping centre serving a wide area to the
south. In the 1930s large numbers of apartment blocks
were constructed along the High Road. These speculative
developments were not initially successful. They were only filled
when émigré communities began to arrive in London after leaving
countries under the domination of Hitler's Germany. In 1932 the parish church of the Holy Redeemer was built in
Streatham Vale to commemorate the work of William
Wilberforce.[4]

Retail decline and
recovery

Pratts department store in summer 1978

In the 1950s Streatham had the longest and busiest shopping
street in south London. Streatham was the site of the first Waitrose supermarket, which
opened in 1955. However a combination of factors led to a gradual
decline through the 1970s and a more rapid decline in the 1980s.
These included long term population movements out to Croydon, Kingston and Sutton; the
growth of heavy traffic on the A23 (main road from central London to Gatwick Airport and Brighton), and a lack of redevelopment sites
in the town centre. This culminated in 1990 when the closure of
Pratts - a department store, which had grown from
a Victorian draper's shop, and had been operated since the 1940s by
the John Lewis Partnership -
coincided with the opening of a large Sainsbury's
supermarket 1 km south of the town centre, replacing an old,
smaller Sainbury's store opposite Streatham Hill
station.

More recently Sainsbury's opened a smaller 'Local' branches on
the High Road and on Streatham Hill, near the site of the
Streatham's first Sainsbury store (opened in 1895). The company
also has offices in Streatham. Other fairly recent additions, such
as Argos, are located on the site of Pratts' (see above) but the
retail recovery has been slow, and vacant space has been taken by a
growing number of restaurants and bars. The High Road's Woolworths
store, closed late on 27 December, 2008, when the company ceased
trading.[5][6]

Contemporary Streatham

Streatham Green

Streatham is a place of contrasts, with middle class families
occupying houses in leafy streets that fetch over £500,000 while
there are large amounts of asylum seekers, predominantly from north
and east African countries.

In September 2002, Streatham High Road was voted the
"Worst Street in Britain"[7] in a
poll organised by the BBCToday programme and CABE. This
largely reflected the dominance of through traffic along the High
Road. On a positive note this was a catalyst for Lambeth Council and Transport
for London's Street Management to start co-operating, and there
is now a joint funding arrangement for ongoing streetscape
improvements, although spending has been slowed because of TfL's
budgetary shortfall.

Investment and regeneration had begun before the poll, with
local amenity group The Streatham Society
leading a successful partnership bid for funding from central
government for environmental improvements. Work started in winter
2003-04 with the refurbishment of Streatham Green and repaving and
relighting of the High Road. In 2005 Streatham Green won the
Metropolitan Public Gardens Association 'London Spade' award for
best public open space scheme in the capital.

Streatham Festival was
founded in 2002. Now in its sixth year, it is a two-week festival
with over 50 events held in an array of locations, from bars to
churches and parks to youth centres, attracting over 3,000
people.

Perhaps because of its good late night transport connections to
the West End, and the availability of apartments as well as family
houses, Streatham and nearby Brixton Hill have
attracted entertainers to live in the area since the days of Music
Hall.

Drum and Bass DJ Grooverider is from Streatham, Mark King (renowned bassist
of Level 42) lived for several years in The Spinney and Boon
Gould (guitarist of Level 42) lived for several years in
Gleneldon Road.

Siobhan Dowd
the author lived in Abbotsford Road, Streatham (1960-1978). Beryl
Kingston, popular novelist, lived at Strathbrook Road, Streatham,
from 1956 - 1980 and taught at what was then Rosa
Bassett School in Welham Road, and also at Sunnyhill Primary
School. Dennis
Wheatley (noted best-selling author of the Black Magic genre)
was born in Streatham, and lived for a time on Valley Road.

Television property expert Sarah Beeny has lived in Streatham for many
years.[8]

Aleister
Crowley, later dubbed "The Wickedest Man In the World", spent
his teenage years during the 1880s in Streatham at a house opposite
the present ice rink.

Cynthia
Payne is a renowned "madam"
who made the headlines in the 1970s and 1980s with her brothel in Ambleside Avenue,
Streatham.

From LoveToKnow 1911

STREATHAM, a large residential district in the
south of London, England, within the municipal
borough of Wandsworth.
The name appears to indicate its position on an ancient "street" or
highway. According to
Domesday, Streatham included several manors, two of which, Tooting
and Balham (to follow the modern nomenclature), belonged to the abbot of St Mary de Bec in Normandy. One of several
public grounds in the neighbourhood of Streatham is called Tooting
Bec Common. The parish church of St Leonard, Streatham, contains
among its memorials that of Henry Thrale (d. 1781), with an
inscription by Samuel Johnson, who was a constant
visitor at Thrale's house, Streatham Park, which is no longer
standing.